Industry News: Abbott Recognizes Forward-Thinking Care Teams for their Positive Impact on Hospital Systems and Patient Outcomes

Abbott, along with other global health industry leaders, has announced the winners of the 2019 UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence™ Award. The winning care teams demonstrated an ability to work in new ways, across different healthcare disciplines —such as gynecology and obstetrics, nephrology, information technology or the diagnostic core laboratory— in order to solve challenges facing hospital systems across the globe and their patients. 

"Future health systems will look much different than they do today, and those who are rethinking ways to deliver a better patient experience and improved outcomes are the ones that will lead this paradigm shift," said John Ginascol, executive vice president, Core Diagnostic, Abbott. "The UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Award inspires forward thinking in healthcare and helps to share these key learnings for value-based care across the globe."

Inaugural award winners driving value-based care 

These teams that are changing the healthcare industry in innovative ways for patients, clinicians, payors and healthcare institutions include: 

• Ernst von Bergmann Hospital and Kidney Care Center Diaverum MVZ Potsdam affiliated with Otto-von-Guericke University (OvGu) Magdeburg, Germany
• Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom
• University of Dundee, United Kingdom 

Ernst von Bergmann Hospital and Kidney Care Center Diaverum MVZ Potsdam affiliated with Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg: Through an electronic alert in patient medical charts, this multidisciplinary team was able to improve acute kidney injury detection, which often has no signs or symptoms, and reduce the number of patients with undetected acute kidney industry by 75%. By adding an e-Alert, the hospital's lab partnered with nephrologists to help ensure clinicians are notified when test results are concerning, allowing them to act quickly and avoid complications.  

Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust: A multidisciplinary team evaluated the use of new diagnostic tests for preeclampsia to help improve outcomes and reduce readmissions, leading to increased patient satisfaction and lower costs. 10 million women develop preeclampsia each year around the world, causing extremely high blood pressure that can result in death of the baby or mother.1 Oxford University identified patients with the condition, avoiding additional costs and potentially risky blood tests, fetal monitoring and ultrasounds. 

University of Dundee: To improve the diagnosis and management of liver disease, a cross function team created an intelligent algorithm, called iLFT (intelligent liver function test). Liver function tests can commonly be abnormal and physician response is highly variable. The iLFT system offers real-time decisions about testing results, generating a follow up plan that is sent to the primary care physician in as little as four hours. A pilot at the University of Dundee of the test found that iLFT helped increase diagnoses from 41 to 93%, and modeling in the algorithm could provide modest improvements in the patient's quality of life and reduce the number of follow-up visits. 

The UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence award was developed through strategic collaborations among Abbott and seven other prestigious partners who are leaders in healthcare: the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), AACC, European Health Management Association (EHMA), Modern Healthcare, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) and the Institute of Health Economics (IHE).

"The winners have demonstrated the power of leveraging laboratory insights in delivering better patient outcomes, increased satisfaction and high quality efficient care," said Stephanie Mercado, CEO and Executive Director, NAHQ. "Working across clinical teams, they were able to deliver data showing markedly improved results for their patients."

Additional care teams receiving recognition from the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Award program for Distinction** and Achievement* are included below:

• Cleveland Clinic (United States)**
• Dubai Health Authority (United Arab Emirates)*
• Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust (United Kingdom)**
• Hamilton Health Sciences/Population Health Research Institute (Canada)**
• Marienhospital (Germany)** 
• Palestinian Medical Technology Association (Palestine)* 
• SYNLAB Holding Deutschland GmbH (Germany)** 
• TriCore Reference Lab (United States)**  
• University Medical Center Groningen (Netherlands)**

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